Supreme Court Upholds FCC Fines on AT&T, Verizon

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against AT&T and Verizon regarding fines related to customer data privacy violations. The court upheld the FCC's system for levying fines through in-house proceedings, rejecting the companies' argument that it violated their right to a jury trial under the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling was 8-1, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts authoring the majority opinion and conservative Justice Clarence Thomas as the lone dissenter. The case centered around whether the FCC's in-house proceedings for imposing penalties deprived the companies of their constitutional right to a jury trial. According to Reuters, Roberts wrote that 'forfeiture orders issued by the FCC do not definitively resolve the parties' legal obligations,' and that the agency's factual findings are not conclusive.

The FCC fined AT&T $57 million and Verizon nearly $47 million after concluding that the companies had unlawfully sold access to customer location data to third parties without securing user consent. In total, the FCC imposed nearly $200 million in fines on carriers for failing to safeguard customer data, including $80 million against T-Mobile and $12 million against Sprint, which was acquired by T-Mobile in 2020.

Verizon and AT&T paid the fines but also filed legal challenges that led to a split among regional U.S. appellate courts over the lawfulness of the FCC's in-house procedure for imposing penalties. According to The Guardian, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Verizon's fine, while the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that AT&T's right to a jury trial was violated.

In defense of the FCC's in-house system, Justice Department lawyers argued that the agency's assessments are not binding and that companies could challenge them in court before a jury. The companies contended that the FCC's system impermissibly uses in-house proceedings for a process that belongs in court, causing reputational harm before they have had their day in court.

The legal dispute marked the latest case testing whether a federal agency's internal enforcement arrangement violates the constitutional right to a jury trial. According to HuffPost, the Supreme Court also issued an important ruling involving the FCC in 2025, endorsing the way the agency funds its multi-billion-dollar program to expand phone and broadband internet access to low-income and rural Americans.